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Bike lanes help, not hurt, suburbs, Keesmaat says

As Toronto’s new chief planner in 2012, Jennifer Keesmaat made a priority of plans to tranform north Yonge St. from a car-centric “highway” into a vibrant pedestrian destination.

Keesmaat, who left the city post last fall, is “flabbergasted” Mayor John Tory and his council allies appear keen to gut a long-fostered revitalization plan that would remove two lanes of traffic and add protected bike lanes between between Sheppard and Finch Aves. to the spine that is Yonge.

Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto’s former chief planner: “This is really about the kind of city we're creating. It's about much, much more than bike lanes,” said Keesmaat, who now teaches at the University of Toronto. (Eduardo Lima / METRONEWS file photo)

“This is really about the kind of city we’re creating. It’s about much, much more than bike lanes,” Keesmaat, who now teaches at the University of Toronto, said in an interview Thursday.

“It’s also about the revitalization of our suburbs. Are we going to reinforce this idea that they are just places that you get through on your way to somewhere else, or are we going to start creating a critical mass of activity and animation and economic activity, so you don’t need to go downtown to be in a great environment?”

City staff and John Filion, the Willowdale councillor, are recommending the “Transform Yonge” plan to add, in addition to bike lanes, extra-wide sidewalks, better pedestrian crossings, a landscaped centre median and other improvements to what is now a condo-lined, narrow-sidewalked corridor.

Going to council next week, however, is a counter-proposal from Tory’s executive committee to keep the current six lanes of vehicle traffic, install bike lanes on nearby Beecroft Rd., and do as much street beautification as possible with sidewalks widened where possible.

Moving bike lanes to a sidestreet will add $20 million to the $51 million cost, city staff say. Councillor David Shiner, who devised the new plan, says the surcharge could be cut to $9 million through measures that include replacing protected bike lanes in three sections with “sharrows,” or painted markings to remind motorists to share the road.

“The Mayor has been clear that he supports putting bike lanes on Beecroft, while still moving ahead with updating and improving the public realm on Yonge St. …,” Peat said. “The Mayor believes bike lanes running on neighbouring streets along with public realm improvements to Yonge would be a win-win for the area that wouldn’t increase congestion.”

Keesmaat says Tory is looking at bike lanes in the wrong way.

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“Moving bike lanes off Yonge implies that bike lanes are a problem as opposed to part of the solution” that will bring people to the three-kilometre stretch of Yonge, she said.

“The problem with the compromise is it reinforces the same decision-making principles that have led us to this point, the idea that people are travelling through the centre as opposed to (visiting) the centre.”

The planner said in 2012 she walked through the Willowdale stretch with her director of urban design and they interviewed business leaders, real estate professionals and others.

“It’s no secret that, even though we have a subway going right to North York Civic Centre, we have struggled to attract employment uses. The mix isn’t right, there’s too much residential, not enough employment, and you need that mix,” for a dynamic walkable neighbourhood, Keesmaat said.

“We asked people ‘What’s the holdup with locating your business in North York?’ The answer was simple: there’s no ‘there’ there. If we want an urban environment, where we’re going to pay taxes like we’ll pay downtown, we’ll go to the downtown core. Until there’s more of a sense of place it’s just not worth it; we’ll go out to Markham or Mississauga.”

Rather than worrying about slowing commuters, council should be trying to revitalize suburbs with pedestrian-focused “centre” streets that draw people; businesses, including restaurants, and private investment, she said.

Key to that is safety and comfort, something bike lanes improve by helping slow traffic and serving as a buffer between pedestrians and vehicles, while making cycling safer, Keesmaat said.

“Ironically, we have this mythical idea in this city that, if you build a subway, everything will turn out okay,” she added.

“I would really urge decision-makers to think about the future kind of city we’re trying to create, with real destinations in our suburbs that will trigger reinvestment.”

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